


The Out Of Phase Blues

by FireOpal (Raven_At_The_Writing_Desk)



Series: Random Cayrd and Frias [10]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s), Science Fiction, Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 07:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18231779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_At_The_Writing_Desk/pseuds/FireOpal
Summary: Frias starts to experience a ghostly game of tag. Who's he playing with, and where is Cayrd?





	The Out Of Phase Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment, and let me know what you think.

Frias fretted. He cleaned the cabin and still no Cayrd. With a sigh he began to sharpen and clean his knives. None were dull, he just needed something to focus on, the repetitive act keeping him occupied.

  
Cayrd wasn’t too late. It was a long trip to Ulid-Un, even in Cayrd’s souped-up _Fire Opal_. Cayrd spent copious amounts of credits on the classic V-ship to keep it modern and fast. He’d assured Frias that he could make the delivery run in three standard days. It was now creeping up on day four.

  
Frias pushed the knife and the whetstone away on an exhale. He needed more to keep his mind off things. Maybe a workout in the ships’ gym? The _Hubris_ was an old pleasure cruiser turned scavenger ship, it still maintained all the equipment required of discerning, rich travelers. Frias changed quickly and headed out the cabin door.

  
Something bumped into him. He paused just outside the open door. It felt solid, but the hall was empty. He looked around confused.

  
“Cayrd?” He called out, rushing back into the cabin to see if maybe Cayrd had slipped in and he somehow missed it?

  
Empty.

  
Just his hopeful imagination. He sniffed and went to workout. When his arms finally shook with fatigue, he put the weights down and moped the sweat out of his pink hair.

His mind wasn’t any less occupied, but he was tired. He hoped maybe Cayrd would have materialized since he went to workout. He tried not to be too excited, but he practically ran to the cabin.

  
The cabin was still dark when he got in, dark and cold. He decided on a shower, his stomach churning with acid.

  
Something bumped into him again. Something solid. He jerked around, looking everywhere.

  
His neck hair stood up. He listened, waiting for a whisper of voices, but none came. He shivered anyway and ran around turning every light in the cabin on. He wasn’t going to succumb to the darkness just as Cayrd was due home.

  
Frias rushed through his shower and dried off, diving into the large comfy bed he and Cayrd shared. He wanted to relax, but the bump rattled him and he was wide awake again. His eyes kept roving the room, trying to find something that explained the physical presence.

  
He willed his racing heart to still, closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe deeply. He needed to relax, it was just his imagination. If he could only fall asleep, he would wake up and Cayrd would be back.

  
He felt the bed beside him dimple like someone was laying down beside him. He shivered. He hadn’t heard the door open, or footsteps. He opened his eyes looking sideways.

  
Nothing.

  
Frias swallowed. He felt sick and scared. He rolled out of bed crouching, looking, praying it was just someone breaking in, and not the mind-altering darkness. The whisperers and urges that overtook him when he was away from sunlight for too long. No, Cayrd installed the sun lights for him, this shouldn’t be happening!

  
Something fell over. It clanked like a bottle and it came from the small kitchen Cayrd built for him. Only a half-wall separated the sleeping area from the rest of the space. He peeked over.

  
Frias crept over to the side table to get the spare blaster Cayrd kept. He slowly slid the drawer open. Something thumped on the bed and Frias jerked back, blaster in hand aiming at nothing.

  
He choked back a sob, his hand trembling slightly.

  
“Cayrd,” He whispered. “Where are ya?” If Cayrd were here, he’d have someone to turn to, someone who understood. Frias was terrified that he was slipping into an episode and Cayrd would come home to find him covered in blood, again.

  
Something touched his cheek, a tender cupping, much like how Cayrd would. He turned towards the touch and saw nothing again. What was going on?

  
The gentle touch on his cheek tapped him again, then again.

  
Frias furrowed his brow. Was it tapping a code?

  
He stared at the empty space, his mouth slightly agape, his cheek dimpling slightly witch each gentle tap. It stopped and Frias sucked in a breath. Then the soft tapping started again, Frias breathed out each letter.

  
“L-o-v-e-r.” Frias felt tears sting his eyes. “C-Cayrd?” He reached out to touch the same spot on his cheek, and nothing was there. “How? Where?”

  
The tapping began again, this time on his arm. Frias recited the letters, then repeated the words.

  
“Out of phase? What do ya mean?” Frias waved his hand in the air desperate to feel something. The tapping began again. He nodded with each letter, then jerked.

  
“Explosion! Ya were blown up?” Oh no! He was talking to a ghost, Cayrd was dead! “Cayrd!” He grabbed at the air like he could pull Cayrd back to him.

  
There was tapping on his arm again, quick and almost incomprehensible. He Stilled, making himself focus on it.

  
Cayrd wasn’t dead, he was just out of phase. He needed Frias to help him.

  
_You’re the only one I can touch._  Cayrd tapped out on his arm.

  
Frias’ mind raced. He’d heard of devices that could put someone out of phase with the current dimension. Some of the most notorious assassins supposedly used them. He’d never seen one in reality.

  
“I don’t know what to do fer ya,” Frias stood up to find clothes. He didn’t know, but there was someone who might. “Elius might though.” He grabbed his com and sent a message to the purple insectoid as he pulled on clothes. “Stay close ta me, we’ll get this figured out.”

***

  
“He’s out of phase?” Elius blinked bleary eyes at Frias. Frias nodded, his arms crossed as he stood in the small cabin Elius shared with their partners. “Like, he forgot what day it was?”

  
“Like there was an explosion and he got knocked outta phase with this dimension.” Frias took a steadying breath and felt Cayrd’s hand on his shoulder.

  
“That’s…is that even possible?” Elius yawned.

  
“Is what possible?” Dallran called from the rumpled bed he and Elius shared in the corner.

  
“Being knocked out of phase with the current dimension,” Elius repeated for him.

  
“Yeah, it can happen,” Dallran mumbled and rolled over. Elius perked up and Frias felt the grip in his shoulder get stronger.

  
“Can it be reversed?” Frias walked over to the bed and hovered. Dallran looked up grumpily.

  
“Can what be reversed?” he asked. Frias reached down and snatched him up with his blanket.

  
“The phasing thing! Can ya bring him back?” Frias shook him.

  
“Dude!” Elius came over and detangled Frias from Dallran who protested being woken up so rudely. “If you want help you have to chill.”

  
“If you want a phasing device you have to let me wake up first.” Dallran crawled out of the bed and away from Frias.

  
“Ya have one?” Frias asked, letting Elius hold him back.

  
“Sort-of.” Dallran moved to a small kitchen like area and pushed a button on a device that started brewing coffee. Frias ground his teeth, he was usually patent, but this was testing him. Elius must have noticed, they looked from him to Dallran.

  
“Sugar-Snail, what do you mean?” Elius asked their partner. Dallran sipped the hot brew and sighed.

  
“I was kinda working on one a while back. I think it’s still in the hanger-bay. But it only slightly works.” Dallran shrugged. “I haven’t really messed with it in a while.”

  
“What do ya need fer it?” Frias pushed past Elius towards Dallran. “We’ll get ya whatever.”

  
Dallran sipped more coffee and thought about it. “I’ll have to check it out, but it’s not really what I _need_  as much as the maths don’t work.”

  
“Make ‘em work,” Frias growled, and Dallran blinked.

“I think I missed something,” Dallran said. “You’re never like this.”

  
“Commander Roewing got blown out of phase,” Elius said quickly. “We need to get him back.”

  
“Huh,” Dallran considered that as he drank more coffee. “I mean, I can try and get it up and running, but I have no idea if it’ll work.” He backed up as Frias took a step forward. “But maybe it would help I knew what happened in detail!” Dallran said quickly.

  
Frias felt a firm grip on his shoulder again, then something like an arm sliding across his chest, like a hug. He breathed, wishing he could lean back against Cayrd and feel him there. He understood though, Cayrd was telling him to relax.

  
“Ok. Cayrd, darling,” He said, his eyes closed. “Tell me what happened.” He stood still letting Cayrd tap out the message on his arm.

  
***

  
Cayrd picked out a lingering bit of dried meat from between his serrated teeth. He didn’t allow himself to stop for any fancy meals this run, he had something much tastier waiting for him when he got back to the ship. Besides, Frias probably had something delicious cooking up waiting for him in their new cabin. The man loved to cook, which worked for Cayrd because he loved to eat Frias’s cooking. It would make up for the crappy dried ration he’d just devoured.

  
He got up to check his cargo one last time before he made it to the jump-gate. He planned to speed through the jump system, something not really recommended but his ship could handle it. The electromagnetic ore harvester needed to be secure though. He didn’t want it bumping around inside the jump-corridors, he wouldn’t be able to get up and fix it, and he didn't want it getting damaged.

  
Cayrd tested the straps one last time on the fancy-ass beam-drill, and made sure the magno-locks on the crate the drill rested in were engaged. Nothing short of a space vacuum would knock it loose now. Satisfied, Cayrd went and steered the _Fire Opal_ into the nearest jump-gate and let the currents of the jump corridor grab his ship.

  
He steered his ship with a little thrill. The speed in the jump corridor was almost blinding and required a steady hand to take a ship past a gate. The natural pull of the gates guaranteed nothing ever drifted for long in the corridor, but it took talent to avoid them. If you pulled away too hard at these speeds, a ship would just ricochet around like a badly aimed cue ball till it was spat out of a gate somewhere in space, broken and usually with heavy casualties.

  
These thoughts echoed in Cayrd’s mind as he flew, giddy from the speed and confident in his ability to navigate. It wasn’t his first long jump, and his ship could more than handle it. He’d be home with Frias in no time.

  
A blast of cannon fire flashed past him and Cayrd briefly wondered who was stupid enough to fire inside the jump corridor, then his world exploded around him, and he apologized to Frias because he wasn’t going to make it home.

  
***

  
“So he was attacked inside the jump corridor and that somehow activated the drill thing?” Dallran nodded slowly as he spoke, “Yeah, that…might have done it.”

  
“How’d he get back here?” Elius asked, eyes wide at the story. Frias frowned and Cayrd tapped out his response.

  
“He says he was just, here,” Frias looked over at Dallran. “Can ya help?”

  
“See that’s the weird thing about being out of phase, it’s like…” Dallran waved a hand in the air. “Its like walking down a hallway of windows, and each one is somewhere else.”

  
“Cool,” Elius said. Frias glared at them. Elius shrugged.

  
“Maybe, but if you get stuck in the hallway, you’re forever looking in windows and are never able to get any further.” Dallran finished off his coffee. “But knowing the physics of the jump-corridor, and the drill…” Dallran wandered over to a datapad he’d set up with a keyboard. He just started typing. “Yeah, and then…yeah…” He chewed his lip as he worked and Frias tried very hard to control his rising temper.

  
Normally none of this bothered him, but right now, it was taking everything he had not to simply shake Dallran till he made everything work. Elius kept looking at him.

  
“So uh, commander, um, does it look like a hallway there?” Elius asked, drawing Frias attention. Frias glared at him and Elius tilted their head. “Is that the commander glaring at me, or you?”

  
“So, I still don’t know if this will work, but this is probably the most confident I’ve been about the math in a while.” Dallran picked up the datapad. “Follow me to the hanger-bay,” Dallran led the way out of his cabin and Frias dashed to keep up.

  
“What if it doesn't work?” Frias asked just a step behind. Dallran shrugged.

  
“Nothing? Everything? It might not bring him back here and knock him some where else.” Dallran scrambled into the hanger-bay and made a beeline for a work bay where a disk like device was sitting on the floor. “Tell him to, um, stand on the disk.” Dallran waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the disk. Frias didn’t know what to do, could Cayrd even do that?

  
_I’ll be back soon, Lover._  Cayrd tapped out, and then he wasn’t there. Frias help back a sob. He wanted to reach and hold Cayrd’s hand. He was scared.

  
“Alright,” Dallran was uploading things from the data-pad to the consul of his machine. A humming noise filled the air and it felt like a thunderstorm was coming. Frias felt like his teeth were vibrating in his head. He covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. The sound crescendoed, then silence.

  
Thick, calloused hands cupped his chin and tilted his face. “Lover? Frias,” Cayrd’s voice snapped Frias out of his panic. He blinked up into azure blue eyes framed in curly red hair and a matching beard.

  
“Cayrd!” Frias threw his arms around Cayrd’s neck. “It worked?” Cayrd buried his faced against Frias’ shoulder and Frias held on, feeling Cayrd solid against him.

  
“Well shit,” Dallran rubbed his eyes. “I did not expect that to work.”

  
But it had, and Cayrd was home, and whole, and safe.

  
“Ya were mah last thought before everything went blank and mah first when I could see again,” Cayrd mumbled low enough for only Frias to hear.

  
“Good,” Frias cluing to him, afraid Cayrd would fade if he let go. “Think of me as much as ya need, if it brings ya back to me.”

  
Cayrd pulled back and smiled at Frias. Relief flooded through Frias, and his eyes teared up.

  
“Ahm starving,” Cayrd said, standing and pulling Frias with him. “And tired.”

  
“Let’s go our cabin then, I’ll make ya whatever ya want.” Cayrd nodded, and Frias led the way, home.


End file.
